A Vicious Circle
by Darth Kieduss the Wise
Summary: Luke Skywalker goes down a dangerous path after he sets out to avenge his father's murder.
1. Your Father

**In the original draft written by Leigh Brackett, Anakin Skywalker and Darth Vader were different persons, and indeed Vader killed Anakin after turning to the dark side. Also, Anakin was supposed to be a force ghost that would help Luke. But then Brackett died (ironically a year after her husband) in 1978 and someone else took over the script. Much of the first chapter is based on the novel.**

_A long time ago...Hey, if it's a long time ago, how do they have lasers...We don't have lasers. Wait, yes we do. Point withdrawn..._

"You fought in the Clone Wars?" Luke asked.

"Yes," Kenobi acknowledged casually. "The war ended not long before you were born. I was once a Jedi Knight. The same as your father."

"A Jedi Knight?" Luke echoed. Then he looked confused. "But my father didn't fight in the Clone Wars. He was no knight-just a navigator on a spice freighter."

"That's what your uncle told you," Kenobi said, letting out a smile. "He didn't hold with your father's ideals, opinions, or with his philosophy of life. He believed that your father should have stayed here on Tatooine and not gotten involved. Well, he thought he should have remained here and minded his farming."

Luke said nothing, his body tense as the old man related bits and pieces of a personal history Luke had viewed only through his uncle's distortion.

"Luke, you must not blame him. Owen was always afraid that your father's adventurous life might influence you, might pull you away from Anchorhead." He shook his head slowly, regretfully at the remembrance. "I'm afraid there wasn't much of the farmer in your father."

Luke turned away. He returned to cleaning the last particles of sand from Threepio's healing armature. Then he looked back at Kenobi. "I wish I'd known him," he finally whispered.

"He was the best star pilot in the galaxy," Kenobi went on, smiling, "and a cunning warrior. The Force...the instinct was strong in him." For a brief second Kenobi actually appeared old. "And he was also a good friend."

_"You owe me one, and not for saving your skin for the tenth time," Anakin said to him._

_"Ninth time," Obi-Wan reiterated. "That business on Cato Nemoidia doesn't, doesn't count."_

_Anakin smiled at him._

Suddenly the boyish twinkle returned to those piercing eyes along with the old man's natural humor. "I understand you're quite a pilot yourself. Piloting and navigation aren't hereditary, but a number of the things that can combine to make a good small-ship pilot are. Things you may have inherited. Still, even an infant has to be taught to walk. In many ways, you know, you are much like your father." Kenobi's unabashed look of evaluation made Luke nervous, but his praise made him blush a bit. "You've grown up quite a bit since the last time I saw you."

Having no reply for that, Luke waited silently as Kenobi sank back into deep contemplation. After a while the old man stirred, evidently having reached an important decision.

"All this reminds me," he declared with deceptive casualness, "I have something for you." He rose and walked over to a bulky, old-fashioned chest and started rummaging through it. All sorts of intriguing items were removed and shoved around, only to be placed back in the bin. A few of them Luke recognized. As Kenobi was obviously intent on something important, he forbore inquiring about any of the other tantalizing flotsam.

"You're father wanted you to have this when you were old enough," Kenobi continued, "...if I can find the blasted thing. I tried to give it to you once before, but your uncle wouldn't allow it. He believed you might get some crazy ideas from it and end up following old Obi-Wan on some damn fool idealistic crusade like your father did.

"You see, Luke, that's where your father and your uncle Owen disagreed. Lars is not a man to let idealism interfere with business, whereas your father didn't think the question even worth discussing. His decision on such matters came like his piloting-instinctively. He kind of just did things rather than scheme up a plan."

Luke nodded. He finished picking out the last of the grit and looked around for one remaining component to snap back into Threepio's open chest plate. Locating the restraining module, he opened the receiving latches in the machine and set about locking it back into place. Threepio watched the process and appeared to wince ever so perceptibly.

Luke stared into those metal and plastic photoreceptors for a long moment. Then he set the module pointedly on the work-bench and closed the droid up. Threepio said nothing.

A grunt came from behind them, and Luke turned to see a pleased Kenobi walking over. He handed Luke a small, innocuous-looking device, which the youth studied with interest.

It consisted primarily of a short, thick handgrip with a couple of small switches set in the grip. Above the small post was a circular metal disk barely larger in diameter than his spread palm. A number of unfamiliar, jewel like components were built into both handle and disk, including what looked like the smallest power cell Luke had ever seen. The reverse side of the disk was polished to a mirror brightness. But it was the power cell that puzzled Luke the most. Whatever the thing was, it required a great deal of energy, according to the rating form of the cell.

Despite the claim that it had belonged to his father, the gizmo looked newly manufactured. Kenobi had obviously kept it carefully. Only a number of minute scratches on the handgrip hinted at previous usage.

"Sir?" Threepio said.

"What?"

"If you'll not be needing me," Threepio declared, "I think I'll shut down for a bit."

"Sure, go ahead," Luke said absently, returning to his fascinated study of the...the...whatever-it-was. Behind him, Threepio became silent, the glow fading temporarily from his eyes. Luke noticed that Kenobi was watching him with interest. "What is it?" he finally asked, unable despite his best efforts to identify it.

"Your father's lightsaber," Kenobi told him, handing it to the young lad. "At one time they were widely used. Still are, in certain galactic quarters."

Luke examined the controls on the handle, then tentatively touched a brightly colored button up the nar mirrored pommel. Instantly the disk put forth a blue-white beam as thick around as his thumb. It was dense to the point of opacity and a little over a meter in length. It did not fade, but remained as brilliant and intense at its far end as it did next to the desk. Strangely, Luke felt no heat from it, though he was very careful not to touch it. He knew what a lightsaber could do from the stories he heard from pilots, though he had never seen one before. It could drill a hole right through the wall of Kenobi's house-or through a human being.

As Luke twisted the blade this way and that, careful not to hit anything or himself, Kenobi continued.

"This was the formal weapon of a Jedi Knight," Kenobi explained. "Not as clumsy or random as a blaster. More skill than simple sight was required for its use. An elegant weapon for the more civilized age. It was a symbol as well. Anyone can use a blaster or fusion cutter-but to use a lightsaber _well_ was a mark of someone a cut above the ordinary.

"For over a thousand generations, the Jedi Knights were the most powerful, most respected force in the galaxy. They served as the guardians and guarantors of peace and justice in the Old Republic. Before the dark times...Before the empire..."

When Luke failed to ask what ha happened to them since, Kenobi looked up to see that the youth was staring vacantly into space, having absorbed little if any of the oldster's instruction. Some men would have chided Luke for not paying attention. Not Kenobi. More sensitive than most, he waited patiently until the silence weighed strong enough on Luke for him to resume speaking. Turning off the lightsaber, he took a seat next to Kenobi.

"How," he asked slowly, "did my father die?"

Kenobi hesitated, and Luke sensed that the old man had no wish to talk about this particular matter. Unlike Owen Lars, however, Kenobi was unable to take refuge in a comfortable lie.

_Tell him,_ a voice told Kenobi. _He must know._

"A young Jedi named Darth Vader," Kenobi declared solemnly, "who was a pupil of mine until he turned evil. Helped the Empire hunt down and destroy the Jedi Knights...He betrayed and murdered your father...One of my disciples...and one of my greatest failures."

Even as Luke was taking this information with shock and horror, Kenobi couldn't help but remember...

_"Vader, Palpatine is evil!" Kenobi screamed, much younger than he was now.._

_"From my point of view, the Jedi are evil!" Vader retorted._

_"Well, then you are lost!"_

"Vader used the training I gave him and the Force within him for evil, to help the corrupt emperor. With the Jedi Knights disbanded, disorganized, or dead, there were few to oppose Vader. Today they are all but extinct."

An indecipherable expression crossed Kenobi's face. "In many ways they were too good, too trusting for their own health. They put too much trust in the stability of the Republic, failing to realize that while the body might be sound, the head was growing diseased and feeble, leaving it open to manipulation by people such as its own Supreme Chancellor, who would eventually declare himself the Emperor he is to this day.

"I wish I knew what Vader was after. Sometimes I have the feeling he is marking time in preparation for some incomprehensible abomination. Vader was seduced by the dark side of the Force."

Luke's face twisted in confusion. "The Force?"

Kenobi nodded, happy to change the subject. "I forget sometimes in whose presence I babble. The Force is what gives a Jedi his power. Let us say simply that the Force is something a Jedi must deal with. It's an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us, penetrates us, it binds the galaxy together."

Kenobi came over toward Artoo Detoo. The old man fiddled with its metal insides for a split second. "Now let's see if we can figure out what you are, my little friend, and where you came from."

"I saw part of the message," Luke began, "and I..."

The striking portrait of a young beautiful woman in white robes was projected into empty space from the front of the little droid. Luke broke off, enraptured by its enigmatic beauty once again.

"Yes, I seem to have found it," Kenobi murmured contemplatively.

The image continued to flicker, indicating a tape hastily prepared. But it was much sharper, better defined now, Luke noted with admiration. One thing was apparent: Kenobi was skilled in subjects more specific than desert scavenging.

_"General Kenobi," _the mellifluous voice was saying, _"Years ago, you served my father in the Clone Wars. Now be begs you to help him in his struggle against the Empire. I regret that I am unable to present my father's request to you in person. But my ship has fallen under attack, and I'm afraid my mission to bring you Alderaan has failed. I have placed information vital to the survival of the rebellion into the memory systems of this R2 unit. My father will know how to retrieve it. You must see this droid safely delivered to him on Alderaan. This is our most desperate hour. Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi. You're my only hope."_

A small cloud of tridimensional static replaced the delicate portrait, then it vanished entirely. Artoo Detoo gazed up expectantly at Kenobi.

Luke's mind was as muddy as a pond laced with petroleum by a man on a weekend drinking binge. Unanchored, his thoughts and eyes turned for stability to the quiet figure seated nearby.

The old man. The crazy wizard. The desert bum and all-around character whom his uncle and everyone else had known for a long as Luke could recall.

If the breathless, anxiety-ridden message the unknown woman had just spoken into the cool air of the hut had affected Kenobi in any way he gave no hint of it. Instead he leaned back aginst the wall and tugged thoughtfully at his beard.

"You must learn the ways of the Force, if you are to come with me to Alderaan."

"Alderaan!" Luke hopped off his seat, looking dazed. "I'm not going to Alderaan. I don't even know where Alderaan is." Vaporators, droids, harvest-abruptly the surroundings seemed to close in on him, the formerly intriguing furnishings and alien artifacts now just a mite frightening. He looked around wildly, trying to avoid the piercing gaze of Ben Kenobi...old Ben...crazy Ben...General Obi-Wan Kenobi.

"I've got to get back home," he found himself muttering thickly. "It's late. I'm in for it as it is."

"I need your help, Luke," Kenobi explained his manner a combination of sadness and steel. He nodded at Artoo Detoo. "_She_ needs your help. I'm getting to old for this sort of thing."

"But...I can't get involved with anything like that," Luke protested. "I've got work to do; we've got crops to bring in-even though Uncle Owen could always break down and hire a little extra help. I mean, one, I guess. It's not that I like the Empire. I hate it. But there's nothing I can do about it. Not now. Besides, that's all such a long way from here. The whole thing is really none of my business."

"That's your uncle talking," Kenobi observed without rancor.

"Oh! My uncle-how am I ever going to explain this to him?"

The old man suppressed a smile, aware that Luke's destiny had already been determined for him. It had been ordained five minutes before he had learned about the manner of his father's death. It had been ordered before that when he had heard the complete message. It had been fixed in the nature of things when he had first viewed the pleading portrait of the beautiful Senator Organa awkwardly projected by the little droid. Kenobi shrugged inwardly. Likely it had been finalized even before the boy was born. Not that Ben believed in predestination, but he did believe in heredity-and in the Force.

"Learn about the Force, Luke. Remember, the suffering of one man is the suffering of all. Distances are irrelevant to injustice. If not stopped soon enough, evil eventually reaches out to engulf all men, whether they have opposed it or ignored it."

"I suppose," Luke confessed nervously. "I _could_ take you as far as Anchorhead. You can get transport from there to Mos Eisley, or wherever it is you want to go."

"Very well," Kenobi agreed. "That will do for a beginning. But you must do what you feel is _right_, of course."

Luke turned away, now thoroughly confused. "Okay. Right now I don't feel too good about this..."

_He cannot hide from his destiny forever, Obi-Wan, _the familiar voice said.

_I know, old friend,_ Obi-Wan thought back. _I know._


	2. That's No Moon

_MILLENNIUM FALCON_

Skywalker, Kenobi and the droids had managed to gain transport to Alderaan, on the freighter _Millennium Falcon_, captained by Han Solo and his Wookiee friend Chewbacca. Luke was practicing his lightsaber skills with a remote orb. Chewbacca and R2-D2 were playing dejarik while C-3PO watched and gave Artoo advice. Solo was in the cockpit overseeing the navigation.

_Obi-Wan,_ a familiar voice said to him, _Something terrible has happened._

Before Kenobi could respond, a tremendous pain shot through Kenobi's heart. As he had aged, he had developed some heart problems, but it was nothing like this. It felt like someone had used a knife with an explosive tip and thrusted it into his heart, twisted the blade and detonated the tip, blowing his heart into millions of pieces.

Kenobi leaned over to a wall, holding his heart tightly. Luke came over quickly as Kenobi sat down.

"Are you all right?" Luke asked. "What's wrong?"

"I just felt a great disturbance in the Force," Kenobi whispered. "As if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened...You'd better get on with your exercises."

Han Solo came in. "Well, you can forget your troubles with those Imperial slugs. They'll never be able to track us now. Told you I'd lose them."

Kenobi might have nodded briefly in response, but he was engaged in explaining something to Luke.

"Don't everybody thank me at once," Solo grunted, slightly miffed. "Anyway, navigation computer calculates our arrival in Alderaan orbit at oh-two-hundred. I'm afraid after this little adventure I'll have to forge a new registration."

"Now be careful, Artoo," Threepio told his friend, who responded with something that sounded like _Shut up. I got this, dude._

He made a move, taking out one of Chewbacca's players. An expression of puzzlement, then anger crossed the Wookiee's face as he studied the new configuration. Glaring up and over the table, he vented a stream of abusive growls on the inoffensive machine. Artoo could only beep in reply, but Threepio soon interceded on behalf of his less elopquent companion and began arguing with the hulking furry anthropoid.

"He made a fair move. Screaming about it won't help you."

"Let him have it," Solo said. "It's not wise to upset a Wookiee."

"But, sir, nobody worries about upsetting a droid."

"That's 'cause a droid don't pull people's arms out of their sockets when they lose. Wookies are known to do that."

Chewbacca put his arms behind his head, smiling at Solo's warning and grunting in acknowledgement.

"I see your point, sir," Threepio said. "I suggest a new strategy, Artoo. Let the Wookiee win."

Artoo beeped as if he was saying, _Are you kriffing serious?_

Luke stood frozen in the middle of the hold of the ship. He held his father's lightsaber in position over his head. A low hum came from the ancient instrument while Luke lunged and parried under Ben Kenobi's instructive gaze. As Solo glanced from time to time at Luke's awkward movements, his lean features were sprinkled with smugness.

"No, Luke, your cuts should flow, not be so choppy," Kenobi instructed gently. "Remember, the Force is omnipresent. It envelops you as it radiates from you. A Jedi can feel the Force flowing through him."

"You mean it controls your actions?"

"Partially, but it also obeys your commands."

Luke readied himself as the orb circled him slowly, turning to face it as it assumed a new poisition. Abruptly it executed a lightning-swift lunge, only to freeze about a meter away. Luke failed to succumb to the feint, and the orb soon backed off.

Moving slowly to one side in an effort to get around the orb's fore sensors, Luke drew the saber back preparatory to striking. As he did so the ball darted in behind _him._ A thin pencil of red light jumped from one of the holes in the orb to the back of Luke's thigh, knocking him to the deck even as he was bringing his saber around-too late.

Rubbing at his tingling, sleeping leg, Luke tried to ignore the burst of accusing laughter from Solo. "Hocus-pocus religions and archaic weapons are no substitute for a good blaster at your side," the Corellian smuggler sneered.

"You don't believe in the Force, do you?" Luke asked, struggling back to his feet and deactivating the lightsaber. The numbing effect of the beam wore off quickly.

"Kid, I've flown from one side of the galaxy to the other," the pilot boasted, "and I've seen a lot of strange things. Too many to believe there couldn't be something like this one all-powerful 'Force' controlling everything. Too many to think that there could be some such controlling one's actions. _I_ determine my destiny-not some half-mystical energy field." He gestured at Kenobi. "I wouldn't follow him so blindly, if I were you. He's a clever old man full of simple tricks and mischief. He might be using you for his own ends."

Kenobi only smiled gently, then turned back to face Luke. "I suggest you try it again, Luke," he said soothingly. "You must try to separate your actions from conscious control. Try not to focus on anything concrete, visually or mentally. You must let your mind drift; only then can you use the Force. You have to enter a state in which you act on what you sense, not on what you think beforehand. You must see cogitation, relax, stop thinking. Let yourself drift free. Let go of your conscious self and act on instinct."

Moving to one side, Kenobi took a large helmet from behind a locker and walked over to Luke. Placing the helmet over Luke's head effectively eliminated the boy's vision.

"But with the blast shield down, I can't even see," Luke muttered, turning around. "How am I supposed to fight?"

"Your eyes can deceive you," old Ben explained. "Don't trust them. Fight with the Force. You didn't really 'see' the seeker when it went for your legs the last time, and yet you parried its beams. Try to let that sensation flow within you again."

"I _can't_ do it," Luke moaned. "I'll get hit again."

"Not if you let yourself trust _you_," Kenobi insisted, none too convincingly for Luke. "This is the only way to be certain you're relying wholly on the Force."

Luke took a deep breath and activated the lightsaber. The orb arched toward him. Braking in mid fall, the orb plummeted stone like toward the deck. Luke swung the saber at it. While it was a commendable try, it wasn't nearly fast enough. Once again one of the ports glowed. This time the crimson needle hit Luke square on the seat of his pants. Though it wasn't an incapacitating blow, it felt like one; and Luke let out a yelp of pain as he spun, trying to strike his invisible tormentor.

"Relax! Trust your feelings!" old Ben urged him. "Be free. You're trying to use your eyes and ears. Stop predicting and use the rest of your mind."

Suddenly the youth stopped, wavering slightly. The seeker was still behind him. Changing direction again, it made another dive and fired.

Simultaneously the lightsaber jerked around, as accurate as it was awkward in its motion, to deflect the bolt. This time the ball didn't fall motionless to the deck. Instead it backed up three meters and remained there, hovering.

Aware that the drone of the seeker remote no longer assaulted his ears, a cautious Luke peeked out from under his helmet.

_He is a fast learner,_ Kenobi's invisible friend told him. _He gets that from his mother. I was the slow learner._

Kenobi smiled. _Oh, come on. You were a quick learner too._

"See? You can do it," Kenobi informed him with pleasure. "Once you start to trust your inner self there'll be no stopping you. I told you there was much of your father in you."

"I call it luck," Solo snorted as he concluded his examination of the readouts.

"In my experience, there's no such thing as luck."

"Look, good against remotes is one thing," the Corellian sniffed indifferently, "Good against a living menace is something else."

As he was speaking a small tell tale light on the far side of the hold had begun flashing. Chewbacca noticed it and called out to him. Rising from the game table, the Wookiee followed his partner toward the cockpit.

"You know," Luke murmured, "I did feel something. I could almost 'see' the remote."

"That's good," Kenobi said, his voice when he replied was solemn. "Luke, you've taken the first step into a larger world."

In the cockpit, Solo and Chewbacca had their attention locked on the most vital of the cockpit's instruments.

"Stand by, Chewie." Solo adjusted several manual compensators. "Cut in the sublight engines."

The Wookiee turned something on the console before him. At the same time Solo pulled back on a comparatively large lever. Abruptly the long streaks of Doppler-distorted starlight slowed to hyphen shapes, then finally to familiar bolts of fire. A gauge on the console registered zero.

Gigantic chunks of glowing stone appeared out of the nothingness, barely shunted aside by teh ship's deflectors. The strain caused the _Millennium Falcon _to begin shuddering violently.

"What the hell?" Solo muttered as he sat in the pilot's seat. Next to him, Chewbacca offered no comment of his own as he flipped off several controls and activated others. Only the fact that the cautious Solo always emerged from supralight travel with his deflectors up-just in case any of many unfriendly folks might be waiting for him-had saved the freighter from instant destruction. "Ahh! We've come out of hyperspace straight into a meteor shower. Some kind of asteroid collision. It's not on any of the charts."

"What's going on?" Luke asked, fighting to keep his balance as he made his way into the cockpit.

"Our position's correct, except no Alderaan," Solo explained. He peered hard at several indicators.

"What do you mean? Where is it? That's crazy."

"Won't argue with you there, kid," the Corellian replied grimly. "But that's what I'm trying to tell you. It ain't there. It's been totally blown away."

"What?!" Luke exclaimed. "How?"

"Destroyed by the Empire," Kenobi said as a matter of fact. _This is what I felt. Anakin...what have they done?_

"No," Solo said, shaking his head slowly. In his own way, he was stunned by the enormity of what the old man was suggesting. He may have hated the Empire, but he would believe that a human agency had been responsible for the annihilation of an entire population, of a planet itself...much less have the ability to do so. "The entire Imperial star fleet couldn't destroy the whole planet. It would take 1,000 ships with more firepower that has ever existed."

Muffled alarms began humming loudly as a synchronous light flashed on the control console. Solo bent to the appropriate instrumentation.

"There's another ship coming in."

"Maybe they know what happened," Luke ventured hopefully.

Ben Kenobi's next words shattered more than that hope. "That's an Imperial fighter."

Chewbacca suddenly gave an angry bark. A huge flower of destruction blossomed outside the port, battering the freighter violently. A tiny, double-winged ball raced past the cockpit port.

"It followed us!" Luke shouted.

"No, it's a short range fighter," Kenobi said, studying the configuration of the tracking screen displayed.

"There aren't any Imperial bases around here," Han said. "Where did it come from?

"It sure is leaving in a big hurry," Luke noted, studying the tracker. "No matter where it's going, if it identifies us, we're in big trouble."

"Not if I can help it," Solo declared. "Chewie, jam its transmission. Lay in a pursuit course."

"It would be best to let it go," Kenobi ventured thoughtfully. "It's already too far out of range."

"Not for long," Solo replied grimly.

Several seconds followed, during which the cockpit was filled with a tense silence. All eyes were on the tracking screen and view port.

At first the Imperial fighter tried a complex evasive course, to no avail. The surprisingly maneuverable freighter hung tight on its tail, continuing to make up the distance between them. Seeing that he couldn't shake his pursuers, the fighter pilot had obviously opened up his tiny engine all the way.

Ahead, one of the multitude of stars was becoming steadily brighter. Kenobi frowned. They were moving fast, but not nearly as fast enough for any heavenly object to brighten so rapidly. Something here didn't make sense.

"A fighter that size couldn't get this deep into space on its own," Kenobi observed, narrowing his eyes at the small fighter.

"He must have gotten lost, been part of a convoy or something," Luke hypothesized.

Solo's comment was gleeful. "Well, he won't be around long enough to tell anyone about us. We'll be on top of him in a minute or two."

"Look at him. He's heading for that small moon," Luke said.

"I think I can get him before he gets there. He's almost in range."

They drew steadily nearer. Gradually craters and mountains on the moon-like object became visible. Yet there was something extremely odd about them. The craters were far too regular in outline, the mountains far too vertical, canyons and valleys impossibly straight and regularized. Nothing as capricious as volcanic action had formed those features.

_It's not a moon of any kind, _Kenobi's friend told him. _Obi-Wan, get out of there._

"That's no moon," Kenobi breathed softly but grimly. "It's a space station."

"It's too big to be a space station," Solo objected.

"I have a very bad feeling about this," Luke commented.

"Turn the ship around. Let's get out of here."

"Yeah, I think you're right, old man," Solo agreed. "Full reverse. Chewie, lock in the auxiliary power."

The Wookiee started adjusting controls, and the freighter seemed to slow, arcing around in a broad curve. The tiny fighter leaped instantly toward the monstrous station until it was swallowed up by its overpowering bulk.

Chewbacca chattered something to Solo as the ship shook and strained against unseen forces. Gauges began to whine in protest, and by ones and twos every instrument on the control console sequentially went berserk. Try as he might, Solo couldn't keep the surface of the gargantuan station from looming steadily larger.

"Chewie, lock in the auxiliary power!"

"Why are we still moving towards it!" Luke exclaimed.

"We're caught in a tractor beams. It's pulling us in!" Solo yelled.

"There's gotta be something you can do!"

Solo studied the overloaded sensor readouts and shook his head. "Nothing I can do about it, kid. I'm full power. I'm gonna have to shut down. They're not gonna get me without a fight."

The ship stopped shaking as they were pulled in.

"You can't win," Kenobi said. "But there are alternatives to fighting..."

_Where have I heard that before?_ Anakin's spirit told him with humor.

The true size of the battle station became apparent as the freighter was pulled closer and closer. Running around the station's equator was an artifical cluster of metal mountains, docking ports stretching beckoning fingers nearly two kilometers above the surface.

Now only a minuscule speck against the gray bulk of the station, the _Millennium Falcon _was sucked toward one of those steel pseudopods and finally swallowed by it. A lake of metal closed off the entryway, and the freighter vanished as if it had never existed.

_I agree with Luke. I have a very bad feeling about this._

_Don't worry, Anakin, _Obi-Wan mentally replied. _Whatever happens, it is the will of the Force._

**Review.**


	3. Run, Luke, Run

**It has come to my attention some confusion on the status of Anakin Skywalker. To elaborate, Anakin Skywalker and Darth Vader are two separate individuals. Vader, the former apprentice of Obi-Wan Kenobi, turned to the dark side, taking the Sith title of **_**Darth **_**Vader. He then betrayed and murdered his former friend Anakin. Anakin is dead and he accompanies Kenobi and Luke as a Force ghost.**

DEATH STAR

Kenobi had avoided one patrol after another, slowly working his way back toward the docking bay holding the freighter. Just another two turns and he should be at the hanger. What he would do then would be determined by how inconspicuous his charges had been.

But something was troubling him, judging from the references he had overheard concerning a certain important prisoner, now escaped. That discovery had puzzled him, until he considered the restless natures of both Luke and Han Solo. Undoubtedly, they were involved in some fashion.

Kenobi sensed something directly ahead and slowed cautiously. It had a most familiar feel to it, a half-remembered mental odor he could not quite place.

Then the figure stepped out in front of him, blocking his entry to the hanger not five meters away. The outline and size of the figure completed the momentary puzzle. It was the maturity of the mind he had sensed that had temporarily confused him. His hand moved naturally to the hilt of his deactivated saber.

_"If you're not with me, then you're my enemy," Vader said nineteen years ago._

_"Only a Sith deals in absolutes," Kenobi ironically said, not realizing that also was in absolutes. He grabbed his lightsaber. "I shall do what I must."_

_"You will try," Vader replied with regret. "My old friend."_

_The battle raged throughout a quarter of the planet, leading them to a lava river._

_"This is the end for you, my master," Vader said as they rode on droids through the river. "I wish it were otherwise."_

_"Yes, Vader, so do I."_

_Vader jumped and landed on the platform Kenobi was standing on. Vader landed just on the edge, and Kenobi swung at him. Vader struggled to maintain his balance, but regained his footing and blocked another blow and counter-attacked._

Igniting his saber, he assumed the pose of warrior-ready, a movement accomplished with the ease and elegance of a dancer. Rather roughly, Vader imitated the movement without thought.

"I've been waiting for you, Obi-Wan," Darth Vader intoned solemnly, approaching with a lit red lightsaber. "We meet again at last. The circle is now complete. When I left you I was but the learner, now _I_ am the master."

"Only a master of evil, Darth," Kenobi replied. Executing a move of incredible swiftness for one so old and out of practice, Kenobi lunged at the massive shape. Vader blocked the slash with equal speed, riposting with a counter slash that Kenobi barely parried. Another parry and Kenobi countered again, using this opportunity to move around the towering Dark Lord of the Sith.

"You're powers are weak, old man," Vader noted emotionlessly.

"You can't win, Darth," Kenobi murmured with assurance of one to whom death is merely another sensation, like sleeping or making love. "If my blade finds its mark, you will cease to exist. But if you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine."

They continued to trade blows, with the old man now backing toward the hanger. Once, his saber and Vader's locked, the interaction of the two energy fields producing a violent sparking and flashing. A low buzzing sound rose from the straining power units as each saber sought to override the other.

"You should not have come back," Vader said after a pause in the fight.

They continued to brawl. Slash followed by a stab, block followed by a riposte, blow for blow. They were fast for an elderly Jedi and a cyborg in his 40s trapped in a suit.

In backing away, Kenobi drew the duel into the open, right in front of the entrance to the main hangar. Vader attacked once more and began to chivy Kenobi into a wall. Just as Vader was about to deliver a finishing strike, Kenobi unleashed a sudden flurry of attacks that forced a surprised Vader to pull back.

The fight attracted the attention of the stormtroopers guarding the _Falcon_. Every one of the guards moved in for a better view of the Olympian conflict.

"Now's our chance," Han Solo observed quietly, starting forward. "Go!"

All seven of the stormtroopers guarding the ship broke and rushed toward the combatants, going to the Dark Lord's aid. Threepio barely ducked aside as they ran past. Kenobi heard the approaching commotion and spared a glance back into the hanger. The squad of troopers bearing down on him was enough to show that he was trapped.

Vader took immediate advantage of the momentary distraction to bring his saber over and down. Kenobi somehow managed to deflect the sweeping blow, at once parrying and turning a complete circle.

"You still have your skill, but your power fades. Prepare to join the Force, Obi-Wan."

Kenobi gauged the shrinking distance between the oncoming troops and himself, then turned a pitying gaze on Vader. "This is a fight you cannot win, Darth. Your power has matured since I taught you, but I too have grown much since our parting."

"Your philosophies no longer confuse me, old man," Vader growled contemptuously.

"Ben?" a young voice called.

Kenobi looked to see his young ward Luke out in the bay, looking at him with awe and worry. Kenobi looked back at Vader and smiled.

_Obi-Wan, go, _Anakin's spirit called to him. _Get out of there, Master. You and Luke and the smuggler can take them!_

Obi-Wan said nothing. He raised his lightsaber so the tip pointed straight up, deliberately lowering his guard. Whether he was surrendering, Vader would have none of it. This man had crippled him and left him for dead on Mustafar.

Once again he lunged forward, slashing horizontally with the saber.

_OBI-WAN! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!_

It struck home, cutting the old man cleanly in half. There was a brief flash as Kenobi's cloak fluttered to the deck in two neat sections.

But Obi-Wan Kenobi was not in it. Wary of some tricks, Vader poked at the empty cloak sections with his boot. There was no sign of the old man. He had vanished as though he had never existed.

The guards slowed their approach and joined Vader in examining the place where Kenobi had stood seconds before. Several of them muttered, and even the awesome presence of the Sith Lord couldn't keep a few of them from feeling a little afraid. One stormtrooper even handed another some credits. Desipte their admiration, and fear, of Vader, they still liked to make bets. They were men, after all.

"NO!" Luke cried. The stormtroopers turned and fired at him. Luke responded, firing wildly toward the troops. Solo cursed, but turned to fire in support of Luke.

The battle was intense. Stormtroopers fell yet more popped out. Luke's fury consumed him to where he aimlessly fired at Vader. They all missed but Vader blocked one bolt with his lightsaber. This man had destroyed the Republic had sworn to serve. Destroyed his Jedi brethren and betrayed his mentor. He had oppressed the galaxy. Now, he had killed Luke's father and now his mentor.

Solo had turned and started for the entrance to his ship, but he paused as he aw Luke still firing toward the guards.

"Come on!" he yelled.

"Luke, come on!" Leia yelled at him. "Come on! Luke, it's too late!"

"NO!" Luke screamed in rage.

"Blast the door, kid!" Han yelled.

Luke looked at the Corellian, then back at the firefight. He fired. The energy bolt struck the safety release on the tunnel blast door. The emergency hold broken, the heavy door fairly exploded downward. Both the guards and Vader leaped clear-the guards into the bay and Vader backward, to the opposite of the door.

A familiar, yet different voice rang in his ears. But it wasn't Ben's voice.

_"Run, Luke, run! It's too late. He's gone, son. Run!"_

Bewildered, Luke whirled and retreated into the freighter.

Luke swore to himself that Vader would pay for everything he did. His father's murder would not go unavenged.

**Review.**


	4. Splinter of the Mind's Eye

**Set during the novel **_**Splinter of the Mind's Eye.**_

TEMPLE OF  
>POMOJEMA<br>MIMAN, 2 ABY

_He is near,_ Luke sensed. _Come on, Vader. Come to me. Face justice._

Each swimming in his or her own thoughts, Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa, R2-D2, C-3PO and their three companions, a human Force-sensitive woman, Halla, and two Yuzzems named Hin and Kee walked across the spacious floor toward the far side of the temple. A colossal statue was seated there against the dark wall.

"Pomojema, god of the Kaiburr," Halla whispered. "It almost seems familiar, somehow. That's crazy, of course."

Then she was pointing excitedly, voice and hand trembling alike with the wonder of it. "It's there...I knew it, I knew it!"

In the center of the gray stone chest of the statue lay a dimly pulsing light the hue of vanadinite.

"The kybarr crystal," Leia breathed softly.

Luke stopped, his eyes on the movement to the left of the leering stone figure. It was dark back there, and there was no telling how far the darkness stretched.

Then they all began backing away slowly. Halla's pistol was the first to be drawn, locked, loaded and aimed.

The creature moving out from behind the statue had a wide, wide mouth fringed with short sharp teeth now open in a batrachian grin. Small yellow eyes blinked dumbly at them. It moved on ponderous, warty legs like thick tree stumps.

Halla shot it, but it had no visible effect on the creature. By now, both Luke and Leia were also firing at the predator. This one was a tough badass. It blinked blood but continued a bowlegged march towards them a little bit faster.

"Hin, Kee," Luke called to the Yuzzem as they continued retreating to the entrance. "Go back to the crawler...get the rifles!"

Hin chittering a reply, they raced for the exit. Swallowing his fear, Luke took his lightsaber from his belt. Activating the powerful blue beam, he started cautiously forward.

"Luke, have you lost your freakin' mind?!" Leia shouted.

The creature hesitated within snapping distance, slightly hypnotized by the weaving beam of the saber. Luke lunged forward, the blade contacting the creature's chin. Intense blue plasma energy punctured a small hole in the wide lower jaw.

That produced a dimly outraged moan from the creature. Jaws parted to reveal a gullet high and wide enough to dance in. Luke threw himself sharply to his left and rolled rapidly.

The long pink tongue exploded outward, to pulverize a black boulder that had just been behind the son of a Clone War hero. As Luke rolled to his feet and continued backing away, the creature spat out chunks of rock.

Before Luke could move out of range the thick tongue shot out again. Unable to dodge, he held his saber tightly in front of him. It seemed pitifully inadequate against that pink pseudopod. But the sizzling sound was loud and somewhat disgusting. Apparently he'd contacted sensitive tissue, because the creature let out a throaty yelp. With single-minded determination, it resumed stalking Luke.

Leia and Halla kept a steady fire on the massive body. Again to no effect.

"Useless," the Alderaanian Princess said tightly. She looked toward the entrance. There was no sign of movement there. "Hin! Kee!" she shouted. No response.

"They'll get here," Halla advised her, then whispered to herself, "They'd better."

Unexpectedly, the monster hopped forward. Horizontal door-jaws snapped shut with a ringing thud as Luke ducked underneath the bite. His saber cut a black line across the underside of the jaw as he stumbled clear, to bang into one of the thick pillars supporting the roof. One of the gaps in the soaring ceiling shone directly above.

He shot an anxious glance toward the entrance. He couldn't see the Yuzzem and he couldn't avoid this angry behemoth for much longer.

It was crawling for him once more. A quick glance at the ceiling, a quicker decision, and then he was swinging the lightsaber at the pillar's base.

Like an X-wing in atmosphere, the incredible nergy beam sliced through the black stone. A rumbling noise followed, punctuated by explosive crackings. Luke's eyes widened.

"Holy s...Halla, Leia, run!" he yelled, just as he was sprinting to join them.

Lumbering toward them, the lizard-like creature never noticed the cracks in the ceiling overhead. They spread, multiplied, joined and then the pillar disintegrated, bringing a section of roof as wide as the existing gap down on top of the monster. Gigantic blocks of curved stone crushed its front end to a pulp, stilling the toothy grin forever.

Before long, all movement ceased.

"What happened to Hin and Kee?" he finally asked. "The thing had me corned. I could've been a short meal."

"They're probably arguing," Leia theorized with disgust. "Pretty soon they'll remember what they were sent for. Then they'll come back rushing back in, begging your forgiveness."

"I'll bawl them out then," Luke sighed. "Right now I'm-" He glanced around for Halla, saw her moving at a trot toward the distant idol. "Halla!"

"Let her go," Leia advised him. "She's not running anywhere with it. She'll need our help to get it down anyway. Aren't you coming, too?"

"In a minute," Luke assured her. He reached out with the Force. _Come on, Vader. Where are you? Face me, you murderous coward._

Frustrated by no reply or sense of the Dark Lord, he turned to rejoin his companions. There was a faint, warning rumble and his gaze jerked skyward. So did those of Leia and Halla.

"Luke!" they screamed simultaneously.

He didn't need urging. What he did need was a second or two. The edges of the new hole in the ceiling were widening slightly.

Fate gave him the first second, begrudged him the second.

"Luke!"

Leia was running toward him now as the rumbling stopped and the last small stone fell heavily. Halla stood frozen, torn between the pile of rubble beneath which Luke was buried and the tantalizing proximity of the crystal. Drunk with its nearness, she continued on toward the statue.

Leia reached the small hillock of fresh broken rock, looked around frantically.

"Over...here," Luke's voice murmured, slow and full of pain.

He lay nearby, pinned on his back. She shifted debris from him, ignoring the cloying dust and the scratches the darp fragments made on her hands, arms and nails. But she couldn't budge the massive block that had pinned Luke's right thigh and calf.

"Try again," he instructed her. They strained together. Leia put her back beneath one edge of the stone, thrust upward with what little weight she had. The block did not move.

They rested, breathing hard Luke's face was a mixture of fading pain and hope.

"It's not pressing on me with its full weight," he told her. "If it was I wouldn't have a leg to pull free now. Damn it, where are those two? They could move this thing easily."

Suddenly, a dark deep voice boomed to life.

"Yes, well, I am afraid your slow-witted companions will no longer be able to help you or anyone else, Skywalker."

Luke went cold all over, then flashed hot with anger. A tall, blood-chilling shape stood on top of the rubble in the entrance way. Clad completely in black armor and a black cape, it stared down at them expectantly.

"They're both dead," Darth Vader informed them pleasantly, in a voice devoid of any spark of humanity. "I killed them. As for your droids, they are conditioned to obey orders. I had them turn themselves off."

Moving leisurely down the pile of rubble, Darth Vader addressed them in a coldly conversational tone.

"You know, Skywalker, I had a difficult time finding out that it was you who shot up my TIE fighter above the Death Star station. Rebellion spies are hard and expensive to come by. I also found out it was you who released the torpedo that destroyed the station. You have a great deal to atone for to me. I've waited a long time."

Casually he drew his own lightsaber, began swinging the activated energy blade loosely back and forth, chopping playfully at bits of stone and carving.

"You were lucky that time in the snubship,"he went on, as Luke fought to pull his pinioned leg free. He dug at the stone floor until blood ran from beneath his nails. "I probably won't have the patience to let you last as long as you deserve. You may consider yourself lucky."

Vader's voice dropped to a toxic whisper. "I expect no such difficulty in restraining myself where you are concerned, Leia Organa. In several ways, you are responsible for my setbacks much more than this simple boy."

"_Monster_," was all she could spit out, furious and afraid.

"Do you remember that day back on the Death Star," Vader mused, with deliberate patience, "when the late Governor Tarkin and I interviewed you?"

Leia had both hands on opposite shoulders and was shivering as if from intense cold.

"Yes," Vader observed, perverse amusement in his voice. "I can see that you do. I am truly sorry I have nothing as elaborate to treat you to at this time. However, one can do some interesting things with a saber, you know. I'll do my best to show you all of them if you'll cooperate by not passing out."

Leia's hands dropped to her sides. Running the few steps to Luke's side, she knelt and groped at his wrist. When she rose, she was holding the lightsaber carefully in one hand.

Vader looked on approvingly. "You're going to fight. Good. That will make it interesting. However, do you think this is wise, girl? Crossing blades with the Dark Lord of the Sith?"

She spat at the advancing giant, a pitifully feeble gesture as she brandished the lightsaber's blade.

"The Force give me leave to kill you before I die," she snarled.

An awful laugh issued from behind the gargoylish breath mask. "Foolish infant. The Force is with me, not you. But," he shrugged amiably, "we will see." He assumed a position of readiness. "Come, girl-woman...amuse me."

Grimly determined, mouth clenched, mouth clenched, she moved toward him. As she did so Vader abruptly let his arm fall, let the lambent beam of his saber hang limply at his side.

"Leia, focus!" Luke yelled to her. "It's a feint...he's daring you. Kill him!"

Vader looked over at Luke contemptuously, then back at the Princess. "Go on," he told her, "Let him fight for you if you want."

Leia appeared to hesitate, then lunged straight at Vader with the tip of the saber. Simultaneously the Dark Lord brought his own beam up in a lightning gesture to parry hers.

But Leia performed a spinning, twisting arc in the air and brought her saber down in a slashing flare of blue light. Energy flashed as it contacted the Dark Lord's armored breath mask. Only superhuman reflexes enabled him to avoid the full effect of the blow.

Luke fought to free his trapped leg with a slight twinge of hope. A glancing blow, but if Leia could hit him once...

"Almost, little princess, almost," Vader murmured without anger. "I have been guilty of overconfidence before." He adjusted his stance. "I will not be guilty again."

His saber curled in, around, down. She barely managed to deflect the blow as she backpedaled. Again he advanced, swung; again she deflected the cut.

They dueled on, with Vader steadily pressing his attack. It required every bit of skill and strength the Princess possessed for her to simply defend herself. Meanwhile, Halla was messing with the crystal.

Vader cut down, the Princess brought her saber up yet once more to parry, and Vader at the last instant changed his swing. The tip of the energy beam slashed across her midsection, slicing through her miner's suit to leave a black burn across her middle. She winced in pain, grabbing at the wound with her free hand. Vader allowed her no respite, continuing to press forward.

Luke's efforts to pull himself free had left him as firmly pinned as ever, and utterly exhausted. He lay on the ground, fighting to get his breath and energy back, forced to watch helplessly as Vader continued his game of cat-and-mouse with Leia.

Another intricate swing-and-thrust. This time his saber cut across her cheek, leaving another ugly scorch mark. Tears came as her hand went to her burned cheek. She was moving more and more slowly now, the hand holding Luke's lightsaber shaking uncertainly.

"Come, Princess-Senator Organa, where is your noble fortitude, your traitor's determination?" Vader taunted her. "Surely a few little burns cannot hurt so much?"

Enraged, she swung the saber at him with fresh strength. Without straining, he blocked it completely and continued to move on to cut at her again. Though she blocked it, the force of the blow sent her tumbling, rolling to the ground. Vader followed relentlessly as she tried to crawl away and regain her feet. His saber drew a long black gash down the back of her left leg.

Screaming, she rolled over somehow and ended up standing. Then she moved away from him with a limp, favoring the damaged leg.

Unable to watch any longer, Luke had his head buried in his hands. _Clink_-a sound of rock on rock. Raising his head and turning, he looked behind him. The sound was repeated. He tried to see around the stone trapping him.

A hand, seemingly independent of arm or body, worked its way with infinite slowness and determination over the side of the big block of volcanic stone. It was followed by a head. A terrible wound howled halfway through the upper portion of the skull.

"Hin!" Luke called softly, hardly daring to breath. A quick glance showed Vader still fully intent on the Princess. The fatally injured Yuzzem put a hand to its snout, ordering Luke to silence.

Crawling on hands and knees, Hin came around the stone until he was beneath an over-hanging edge. Backing up against the supporting rocks, he started to rise. Massive bristled shoulders pressed upward against the long rock, arms strained. The boulder did not move, and Hin fell to the floor. His breathing was labored, his eyes half closed and his mind racing.

"Come on, Hin, come on!" Luke encouraged frantically. "You can move it...Just a little is all. Try again, please!"

Hin blinked, seemed to stare at Luke without seeing him. Moving mechanically, it positioned heavy-muscled arms and shoulders underneath the edge once more.

"Come, little Princess," Vader admonished her. "Now is the time for spirit. You still have a chance." He stalked her as she backed from him, threatening her with false cuts and thrusts that she tried to block feebly while limping on her damaged leg. "Stand and fight."

Another downward swing of the lethal saber, this one cutting across her chest and through the suit. The Princess sucked in her breath with an agonized gasp, bent over and almost fell.

Vader moved toward her. There came a grinding sound loud enough to cause both of them to look up. Luke was running towards them. Hin, with the last few seconds of his life, had finally freed him.

"Leia!"

She still retained enough presence of mind to switch off the lightsaber before throwing it to him even as Vader grabbed to intercept the ancient weapon. The Dark Lord missed it by a finger-length.

Jumping, Luke felt reborn as his fist closed around the saber haft, then he rolled with renewed vigor to his right after landing on the ground.

Luke was on his feet, the saber now shining bright blue in his hand. His roll had taken him behind Vader. He stood between the Dark Lord and Leia. Vader regarded him silently.

"Leia?" No answer. H glanced backward. "Princess?"

A thin, sorrowful voice. "Don't worry about me, Luke."

"No, Skywalker," he rumbled, appearing to inhale deeply, "don't worry about her. Worry about yourself."

Luke felt a wild sense of elation as he brandished his father's weapon. "I'm not worried about anything. Not now. I have no more worries..."

"Hello," Luke said as he held his blade in front of him. "My name is Luke Skywalker. You killed my father. Prepare to die."

That humorless laugh again. "What a high opinion you hold of yourself, Luke Skywalker."

"I'm...I'm Anakin Skywalker," Luke whispered in an odd way.

For a moment Vader seemed shaken.

"Anakin Skywalker is dead. I killed him myself. You are only his pathetic son. You are simple Luke Skywalker, an ex-farm boy from Tatooine. You are no master of the Force and the equal of your father you will never be, nor of Obi-Wan Kenobi."

"My father is with me, Vader," Luke snarled, gaining confidence every second, "and the Force is with me, too."

"You do have something of the Force about you, boy," Vader admitted. "A master of it you are not, however. That dooms you. Only a master could do...this."

The Dark Lord lunged and Luke spun well clear. At the same time, Vader was staring not a Luke, but at the ground. A small fragment of the fallen ceiling rose, shot straight for Luke's head. Seeing it coming, he reacted as Kenobi had taught him...without thinking.

Mere seconds after Luke sliced the stone in two pieces, Vader was descending upon him. The red crimson blade smashed against the bright blue, but Luke simply counter-attacked. They traded blows, Luke occasionally spinning and feinting.

Vader was surprised. The boy's style reminded him of the way Anakin Skywalker's style, having sparred with him at the Jedi Temple while he was still a Jedi. Luke blocked blows and counter-attacked immediately. Djem So. Luke fought just like his father.

"Good boy," the Dark Lord admitted. "Very good. But my powers are stronger."

"Not strong enough, Vader," Luke insisted as he lunged forward. His thoughts were of Kenobi, of the techniques of saber and Force the old Jedi Master had laboriously taught him. He tried to let the Force guide him.

Vader parried, blocked, parried again, and found himself being forced backward by the aggressiveness and skill of Luke's demonic attack. The breath mask titled back for a second. A section of heavy bas-relief on one of the supporting pillars was loosened, fell away.

At the last instant Luke sensed it, jumped backward. The huge carved panel shattered between them. Both men rested uneasily as the dust settled. Luke gulped for air, while Vader showed less aplomb and increasing tension.

"You are good, Skywalker," he declared, whichever one the boy was. "Very good indeed, for a child. But the end will be the same. I killed your father. I killed your mentor. And now I will kill you."

He raised his saber and came charging over the broken panel. Now it was the Dark Lord who initiated the assault this time. Luke found himself forced steadily backward as Vader threw an unceasing blizzard of stone shards and saber cuts at him. It was impossible to counter them all.

Somehow Luke did so.

_Focus_, a voice said to him. _Feel the Force like Obi-Wan taught you._

They were circling in the center of the temple floor now. Again, the two enemies paused, only now it was Vader who was panting heavily. "Kenobi...trained...well," the Dark Lord admitted admiringly. Some of his usual insouciance had been drained by the steady fighting. "And you have some...natural ability of your own. You have proven a challenge. I enjoy...a challenge."

Still unhurt, Luke whispered defiantly. "Too much of...a challenge for...you!"

"No," Vader assured him. "No. You overestimate yourself, child. You still...have much to learn." The Dark Lord drew himself to his full, awesome height. "I have finished playing with you."

Swinging his saber until it was no more than a red blur in the dank air of the temple, he leaped straight up into the air. It was more than a jump, less than levitation. Out of the red energy of energy he flung the saber.

Instinctively, he had no time to think, Luke parried. The Force inherent in the thrown saber knocked Luke's out of his hand. Both weapons flew off to the right and lay, still gleaming, still activated, on the ground, near a dark circular opening that gaped black in the floor.

As Vader drifted slowly back to the floor he grabbed his right wrist with his left hand, made a fist, and seemed to convulse like a man retching. A ball of pure white energy the size of his fist materialized in front of Vader's left hand and moved down toward the eye-widened Luke.

Something made Luke realize he could never reach his lightsaber before the white globe touched him. The globe had now turned into a net-like shape, ready to swallow him in a trap. He threw up both hands and looked away. He didn't see what happened.

His hands seemed to blur. The white globe struck them, bounced back, and contacted Vader gently as the latter touched the ground. There was a soft crack as of an explosion far in the distance. Vader was knocked head over and the globe vanished.

But when the white energy ball had touched Luke's hands, the power inherent in the Kinetite had thrown him to the ground. Had he resisted it unsuccessfully it would have thrown him across the chamber and through the temple wall.

Now he lay on his belly while Vader rolled slowly onto his side, shaking his head in disbelief. His eyes refocused, to see a shaken but otherwise unharmed Luke crawling slowly toward his lightsaber.

"Not...possible," Vader muttered, starting to crawl toward his own weapon. The left side of his body armor was dented inward as if by a giant's fist, where the Kinetite had struck. "Such power...in a child. Not possible."

Luke had neither the strength nor the desire to argue. He saw only his father's lightsaber, felt only its smooth handle fitting compactly into his palm.

But by then Vader had reached his own weapon. With a supreme effort he tottered to his feet, turned to face Luke. Holding his father's lightsaber over his head, Luke rose. Both warriors took a pause to catch their breath.

"You will not go near her," Luke said, failing to hide his frustration and exhaustion.

"Oh, but I think I will, Skywalker," Vader said. "We both may be exhausted, but I have decades of experience you don't have. You're only choice is to join me."

"Never."

Vader took a step forward. "I think it's time to end both Jedi and Princess...for good. You're devotion to your friends is admirable, but it will not save you." He took a couple more steps.

"Get back!" Luke exclaimed.

"Ah, yes," Vader said, coming to a stop. "Good, good. Unleash your anger. It is the only way you can save yourself and the Princess. Join me. Become my apprentice. Learn to use the dark side of the Force. I will complete your training. Teach you what Kenobi could not."

"I will never join the man who killed my father."

"Ah, yes, your father," Vader said. "Anakin was a good friend. Too bad he was so blind. He didn't realize the power the dark side offers. He and the other Jedi willingly put those blinders on. He knew the Republic was corrupt but he ignored that. Your father continued serving a corrupt Senate. But you, I sense potential in you."

"I'll never join you."

"Very well then," Vader said, continuing his path toward the young man. "But I sense your anger in you. It is swallowing you up, even now."

"No," Luke said, trying to contain his fury.

"The Princess will die."

"No!"

"Your friends will die and everything you've hoped for will be lost. This is the way the story ends."

"NO!" Luke finally screamed, no longer holding back his anger.

Drawing the last amount of strength in his body, Luke rushed at the Dark Lord and threw himself on the towering black figure.

_Luke, no!_

There was a blinding flash of light as he made contact with Vader's saber beam and slid on through with the blow. His blade continued downward, pierced the stone floor. Luke's hand struck a rock and it jarred his lightsaber loose.

He hit the ground hard, then rolled onto his back to see what had happened. What he saw was Vader staring at the floor. His right arm lay there, still gripping the still glowing lightsaber. There was less blood than Luke would have expected. He tried to rise, but failed. He no longer retrained the strength to climb to his knees, let alone to regain his feet.

So he lay there completely exhausted. Slowly, in uneven, unsteady steps, the Dark Lord tottered to his severed arm. Amazingly, he bent down and lifted the lightsaber from the dead hand's fingers. Holding it in his left, he turned to face Luke. It was useless, he thought, as Vader raised the saber over his head with his head. The Dark Lord of the Sith and Master of the Dark Side of the Force was invincible.

It was over.

"I'm sorry," he murmured, turning his head to where the Princess lay crumpled on the temple floor. "I'm sorry, Leia. I loved you." He looked back up and found he hadn't the strength for a last curse.

The lightsaber soared above and behind Vader's head. The Dark Lord staggered drunkenly forward. He stumbled a couple of steps to the left.

And disappeared.

A dissonant, inhuman howling marked the descent of the Dark Lord down the black circle to Luke's right. Frowning painfully, hardly daring to believe, Luke crawled slowly over to the rim of the black circle, peered in and down.

He could not see the bottom of the pit, nor any sign of Darth Vader.

"He's gone," he mumbled. "Gone down to where he belongs, I hope. Leia, I did it! He's gone."

And yet...there remained a stirring, a faint tremor in the Force, so light he could barely sense it, like a bad aftertaste in the mouth. But it was there..._Vader was alive._

_Damn_, Luke thought.

Yet Vader was no threat to them now. That was enough for him now. He was grunting with anger as he dragged his exhausted body across the floor.

"Leia! Leia!"

Reaching her, he extended a questing palm and touched her forehead. She opened her eye and looked back at him. A tear fell uncontrollably as he probed gingerly at the terrible scars Vader's lightsaber had left on her body and her face.

"Luke?" she breathed, barely audible. She smiled at him, painfully. Taking her hand in his own, he slumped to the ground at her side.

At the top of the rubble blocking the temple entrance, Halla stopped to peer behind her. She saw the two figures lying hand in hand in the middle of the temple floor. Of the Dark Lord of the Sith, there was no sign of him.

"Luke!" Halla called. "Luke boy? Come on, you're frightening old Halla."

Eyes opened, turned to squint at her. "Halla?"

She licked her lips, looked skyward, then placed the crystal in his lap, shoving it at him as if it were burning there. "Here. I can't do much with it. I'm a faker, a charlatan of the Force, not a master. So I could do bigger and better parlor tricks...I'd waste it, and the Empire would find me soon anyway."

Luke moved his gaze from her down to the pulsing silicate in his lap.

"The crystal magnifies the Force," Luke choked. "What good is it now?"

"I don't know!" she shouted angrily. "You wanted it, wll there it is, damn it. What more do you want of me? What more can I do?" She hook both hands at him, furious at her own helplessness.

"Nothing, Halla." He smiled gently at her. "There's nothing more to be done, I guess." He reached down and fondled the crystal. "It feels warm...good."

"You're crazy," she snorted. "It's a cold hunk of rock."

"No...it's warm," he insisted. "Funny kind of warmth."

Unconscious, he fell back, both hands still clamped tightly around the crystal.

Halla stood and turned away. "Stupid old woman," Halla cursed herself. "Stupid, selfish old woman. I should have helped them when it might have done some good. I should have-"

She hesitated, frowning uneasily. Was it growing lighter in the shadowed temple? She turned and her eyes bulged.

Luke's motionless form was enveloped in a rich, red bath of light. In his hands the crystal shone with a brilliant unnatural glow. Nor was the light still. It shifted, fluttered, ran over him like a live thing. It sought out every extremity, each finger and follicle.

After several long, rapturous moments the radiant envelope shrank, sucked up by the crystal which resumed its normal coloring.

Luke sat up so abruptly that Halla was unable to repress a short screech. He blinked once, looked at her. Hesitantly, as though she were about to greet a ghost, Halla edged toward him.

"Luke boy?" she husked querulously.

"Halla. What happened? I..." His head turned, his eyes coming to rest on the silent pit which had swallowed Darth Vader. "I remember that. I also remember...Halla, I _died_."

"You must have found it boring," she replied without smiling. "It was the crystal...something in the crystal. The Force..."

"Don't remember," he insisted, shaking his head dully. Then he reached down and touched the Princess' shoulder. "Leia?"

"You were holding the crystal," Halla explained slowly. "In both hands. Remember the old legends...how the temple priests could heal?"

"I...I don't understand," Luke murmured. But he hefted the crystal again in both hands, closed his eyes and tried to concentrate in the Force and relax at the same time. The glow from the crystal intensified.

"Now I understand," came a voice out of Luke's body that might or might not have been his.

The crimson glow emerged from the crystal again. It started up Luke's arms, only to halt at the elbows. Holding the crystal with one hand, he opened his eyes. Like a man sleepwalking he reached down. One fingertip touched the Princess' face, traced the scar left by Vader's saber. As he traced it with the red glow, the scar vanished. Halla could see the skin moving, folding and healing behind it.

Slowly, wordlessly, as Halla watched, Luke proceeded to trace each of the wounds Vader had inflicted on Leia. When he finished the final one, he placed his open palm first for a lingering moment over her heart, then touched her forehead with a finger. Then he sat back. The glow from the cyrstal subsided to normal.

Several more minutes passed. Uninjured, her beauty restored, Leia Organa slowly sat up. Both hands went to her head.

"Are you all right, Leia?" he asked serenely.

She winced and stared at him. "Luke, I have the most awful headache."

"Headache," he echoed. He turned to smile at Halla. "She has a headache."

Halla grinned back at him, and they both chuckled until Luke stared coughing. The crystal had healed him, but he was still exhausted.

Barely able to stand, Luke and Leia rose, with Halla assisting. They went to gather their droids and head for Circarpous IV.

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